Do consortium leads have the freedom to decide if/how to pass on costs to consortium organizations?

Yes, consortium leads can decide to pay the membership fee themselves or split the membership fee amongst the consortium organizations. In addition, there are examples of consortium leads that add a management fee on top of the service fees that DataCite charges consortium organizations. DataCite thinks it’s important that consortia can work in a way that suits them and leaves it up to the consortia to decide on fees within the consortium.